1st HDR - help please!

[CTdslr]

There are some pink streaks along the building lines. How do I get rid of them?

I wanted to make it unrealistic, but it's still a bit overdone. Any C&C would be extremely helpful. Thank you!

Here are the 3 original images I had to work with:

1

2

3

[guzziknight]

Which program are you using to create the HDR? I believe the pink is chromatic aberration. If you're using Photomatix, there's a box to check to reduce it.

Also, for my tastes, it's a little over saturated. I tend to like the more natural look.

It's a much harder process to master than it seems. It took me a while to get the techniques down.

[draymorton]

Way overdone. Crank down the strength, detail, and saturation.

[CTdslr]

I used CS5. I added the 3 images

[n8]

Hmm, I have yet to get a good result with 3+ images using cs5, usually I only use two, and get pretty nice natural results. Anyway...images like yours are what got me interested in hdr in the first place. Granted, it's a bit "grungy," meaning the effect is very pronounced, but it's really all about preference. Some do hdr to get a nice balance of exposures, others go for the artsy/filter look. To each their own I think. To critique though, it looks like your sooc images were kind of soft and otherwise mundane in terms of subject. Your processing both covers that up a bit, but also makes the flaws apparent.

[armando_m]

Seems you used hand held

It is important to get little to no movement between each image, to much movement and the hdr alligment tool has problems making everything match

Does you camera have auto-bracketing? if so combine it with a high speed burst of images keeping the camera as still as possible so you get everything closely aligned

although the best is to use a tripod.

I would use only 2 images
the good exposure for the sky/clouds
and the good exposure for the street

then lower the strength of the processing

hopefully daq7 will see this and comment , he has some good hdr /tonemapping techniques

[CTdslr]

I have an XSi, and it does have auto-bracketing. I just have to rtfm to find out how to do it.

What's the best time of day for HDR shots? I'm going to try again today or tomorrow. (Same loc)

[GB1]

I haven't tried CS5's capability, but can vouch for Photomatix being superb. This one is quite overdone, especially in the clouds, but if this is what you were shooting for than you got it. I think using 5 images works better than 3. But people are moving here so you may not have time for too many shots. Actually, not sure this is an ideal HDR scene as you can (and did) capture it with the middle tone image in a good way.

[daq7]

So yeah, people are going to tell you to tone it down, but don't always. I like the grunge look and I think it works well here. But it is a fact that you need to work on finding ways to be more subtle to appeal to some people.

Yes, the pink is almost certainly chromatic aberration called cyan fringing, and you can tone it down in the photoshop raw editor. You need to use good glass to avoid it in the first place.

As for getting stable shots, you CAN just take the three exposures from one raw file. I do that most of the time now rather than shooting multiple shots.